Circe Summary and Analysis

Section Two Summary Life in Exile, Visit to Crete, and Expansion of Powers (Chapters 7–14)

Helios carries Circe to exile in his golden chariot. He has selected the island Aiaia, and Circe finds it lush with flora and fauna. She is provided a magnificent palace of richly decorated rooms, comfortable furnishings, and always plentiful food and wine. Circe recognizes that Helios could have chosen a much worse place; she lacks for nothing but company.

Still, she is frightened, especially of the dense forest, but conquers her fears and explores. In time, she knows every inch of the island, has made a pet of one lion, and lives in peace with other lions and wolves. Circe begins to study the island’s flowers and herbs. She may be a witch, but she knows little witchcraft; her education requires long hours of “drudgery.” Through trial and error, she learns how to release each plant’s power. She creates salves, potions, and charms that “…bend the world to my will…,” she declares. Transformation remains her greatest strength.

Circe acquires power, yet still perceives her limits, and when Hermes appears, she is watchful. From Hermes she learns that although she is captive, others may visit her. She also learns the name of her island, Aiaia, above which her father killed a Titan to demonstrate loyalty to Zeus. The Titan’s blood drenched the land, giving it extraordinary power in her hands. Hermes becomes her lover, bringing her news of the outside world, although Circe knows better than to trust the trickster Olympian. Her emerging sense of self enables her to meet the challenges of solitude. She develops a rhythm to her days, tending a garden, caring for once-wild pigs, and enjoying the freedom of her new life after the constraints of the old.

A central event in this section is her leaving the island, summoned by Pasiphaë to assist in childbirth. Daedalus retrieves Circe, and on the voyage to Crete, she experiences her terrible creation Scylla. Circe is heroic in tricking Scylla, and the crew arrives safely. What awaits is also harrowing, as Circe helps deliver the Minotaur and then uses her magic to control the beast. The details of this mythological story display the cruelty of Pasiphaë and the corruption of her marriage to Minos, which are stark comparisons to the decency of Circe and Daedalus, who become lovers, and the innocence of Ariadne, Pasiphaë’s daughter, whom Circe befriends. When she leaves Crete, Daedalus gives Circe a beautiful loom for her weaving.

Back on Aiaia, Circe feels the loneliness of her exile more acutely. Yet as Hermes relates the death of Ariadne, killed by a jealous goddess, and other mortal tragedies, Circe is glad to be sheltered from an ugly world. Near the end of this section, Medea and Jason come to Aiaia, having killed Medea’s brother and fleeing Aeëtes’s wrath. Circe purifies them of the murder before she understands the deed. They leave, and Aeëtes arrives, giving Circe a vivid picture of the brutal brother she once held dear.

This section ends in two pivotal events. First, nymphs who disobey their fathers begin arriving on Aiaia. Circe cannot stop this practice but is angered, for the nymphs are vain and useless, like those she knew in her youth. In this time she also sends Hermes away for good and loses her old lion companion to death. When a ship lands on Aiaia, she welcomes the crew, only to be raped. Too late, Circe senses the danger, but before the rape doses the wine with a potion. Bruised by the first attacker, the rest waiting their turn, she transforms them all into pigs. Then she slaughters and burns them, along with their ship.

Section Two Analysis Life in Exile, Visit to Crete, and Expansion of Powers (Chapters 7–14)

As the setting shifts to exile on Aiaia, the plot propels Circe to a place of newfound power. Her island life provides a freedom she has never known. It also presents an array of challenges and tests: taming wild beasts; coping with a suddenly solitary existence; and most significantly, discovering the power she was condemned for but did not fully possess. These events reveal and underscore character traits that define Circe through much of her story: courage, curiosity, perseverance, determination, and endurance. Particularly in her quest to unleash the full power of her witchcraft, the driven, single-minded Circe is in command. Her character arc dramatically ascends as her confidence and power grow. Initially, she uses her witchcraft in simple ways that please her, such as transforming firewood to cedar for the fragrance. This benign wielding of power is symbolic of the archetypal “good witch” that populates many myths and stories. Yet Circe is fully aware of the destructive potential of her power, likening it to Zeus and his thunderbolt.

When Circe is called to Crete, she continues on her hero’s journey and shows courage and intelligence in outwitting Scylla and responding to the Minotaur’s birth. Her sister Pasiphaë is the contrast of the “wicked witch.” When Pasiphaë asserts that she and Circe are alike, Circe objects. Pasiphaë’s cruelty repulses Circe, who is sympathetic to the plight of mortals at the mercy of the gods. Yet having seen the horror of her own creation of Scylla, Circe must question her own power and motives.

Once back on Aiaia, Circe faces the struggles of a hero’s return: dealing with renewed loneliness and, most dramatically, mortal men intending her harm. In mythology, Circe is depicted as wantonly using her power to turn men into pigs. In this telling, she is the victim of rape. The irony of her insistence that she is different from her destructive sister is evident in what follows. The men are no longer a threat, yet Circe slaughters and burns them. With this act, Circe’s arc as measured by power ascends further, into yet a darker realm.

Circe’s loom from Daedalus provides interesting parallel symbolism with Penelope’s loom, which she plies constantly in The Odyssey while waiting for Odysseus to return. To trick the suitors who throng Ithaca, vying for her hand and Odysseus’ lands, she weaves a shroud at her loom every day and unravels it every night. Penelope’s loom symbolizes both her faithfulness for Odysseus and her craftiness; for Circe, the loom is a symbol of her patience, as well as her willingness to work tirelessly at her craft.